Well. I was planning to write a long post updating you all with what's been happening in my life so far, but tonight coming home from dinner with a friend I accidentally made a huge scratch on another person's car. So I'm a little stressed. I went back inside and told the waitress, and luckily one of my English teacher's was at the restaurant so once the van owners' were found we could communicate fairly well through translation. It also transpires that they are my neighbours, also living in Uddo Tah-un (Wood Town) and the dude knows my supervisor. The joy of living in a small town. On the flip side, seeing as this is a small town and my teacher was at the restaurant, all my schools are going to know about this and I wouldn't be surprised if my supervisor tries to halt my driving "privileges". Ah well, nothing to do until more is known.

So the last few weeks have been an awesome kind of busy. The weather too. It got warm , then cold, and then today it was sort of warm again, due to the rain. I'm sorry, but I couldn't update without posting about the weather, however brief this is.

Seeing as it is the end of the year, there have been quite a few enkais (parties) going on. Last week I had a badminton tournament with the police officers of the town, plus the police of two nearby towns. The tournament itself was fairly miserable, but afterwards we had a very nice dinner where I was regaled with traditional singing and hilarious dancing. And then, of course, in the path that most parties follow, we ended up at karaoke. For two hours I listened to a bunch of really drunk middle aged badminton players croon to several unknown songs. Then I gathered courage to sing Like A Virgin, and though I was definitely the worst singer there, I did get a lot of cheers. A good night all in all.

Last week I had both my board of education enkai, at this swank yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku is Japanese barbeque, although that doesn't really cover it. There are grills in the tables, and they bring you plates of raw meat and vegetables that you grill yourself. When it's cooked to your liking, you dip the food in delicious sauce, let it cool a bit and eat. Since it's winter, we actually had shabu-shabu, which is a hotpot. The plates of food are still brought, but you cook the food in a pot of boiling water. It doesn't sound nearly as good as it tastes, but believe me, it was awesome. The night was also great because it gave me a chance to practice some Japanese, which I have begun studying in earnest now that I have a bit more free time. Though I am still far from anywhere near fluent, I definitely feel more confident.

Also, last Tuesday, the gun, county, had its annual speech recitation day. All the junior high schools in the region have a few students perform a little skit in English, which the ALTs judge. Afterwards, they are divided into random groups and perform a tiny skit with an ALT. I had been practicing with the four students from my school for the last couple of weeks. I wrote the play, only a couple of pages long, and though I'm not sure if the kids really got what it was about, the other ALTs thought it was great. We had costumes and everything. I thought they did a great job, and I had a blast, getting to know a few of the kids a bit better. One of them I took a shining to the first day. My personal nickname for her is Hermione, although she's the first kid's name that I learnt. Her parents are dentists, and she's this super overachiever who's incredibly smart and is involved in about 15 different after-school activities. Plus, though her pronunciation isn't amazing, her delivery is. Seriously, she sounds so natural in her stress and attitude, better than some of the English teachers at school. Another kid is also one of my favourites, just because he's so cute and small with a perfectly spherical shaped head.

Not so samui

Just as I was getting used to the cold, the weather decided to take a turn to the nice. Yesterday it rained like crazy, and though the windows and doors were closed for some reason all the walls at school were wet. Today is completely sunny and hot. So much that I had to come home at lunch to take off the long johns and extra pair of socks I was wearing. Yes, I wear at least two layers of everything to school. Thank goodness for long johns.

Today I wrote on a whiteboard with permanent marker. This was at elementary school, so I didn't hear the end of it from all the students. I love them though, so I didn't mind. The elementary school kids are great, not only because they put my complaining into perspective as they have to wear shorts to school all year round. Yes, even in the winter. Those poor goobers.

I finally finished my six week run of evening conversation classes. Six weeks may not sound like a lot, but it felt like forever. I apologize to everyone for being in a foul mood since the end of October. I'm two thirds relieved and ecstatic, one third kind of sad. I loved my beginner conversation class, partly because I didn't have to prepare and we just would sit around and eat and talk, but the intermediate class was painful and the kid's club was like pulling teeth. So many kids that I wanted to throttle, but of course that would not look good to their mothers sitting in the back watching me. I teach all the kids at elementary schools, but together those 22 little goobers were about as energetic and smart as empty potato sacks. I mean, seriously, what Japanese kid doesn't know the rules to animal/color/fruit basket?

SAMUI!!

Man, is it cold. I am sitting in my tiny tatami room, with the little electrical heater on, wearing fleece socks and pants and three shirts, and my fingers are too cold to type a long post. It's about 8 degrees Celsius now in the evening, and during the day the temperature still sometimes hits the twenties. Still, I have never felt colder than I do now. I apologize because I foresee the infrequent blog entries of the next few months being nothing but frozen fingered rambles about the progressively colder and colder weather and rants about how a country can be so technologically advanced yet not have such a thing as insulation. Either that, or every entry will contain the same broken record tendencies as those in the following paragraph:

This weekend was good, but cold. I went to the Ibusuki sand baths, which were nice and warm except for the part where we had to walk outside to the beach wearing nothing but yukatas (cotton kimonos, or thin bathrobes), which was cold. I went to a random old Japanese man's house for dinner with some friends and one of said friend's coworker (who happens to know said random man). His wife prepared a delicious meal, which included nabe which is a delicious Japanese traditional soup/stew/hotpot eaten in the cold winter months. This was amazing especially since it was so cold, although the house itself was fairly warm. The next morning was impossible to wake up due to the cold, but we did and then headed to Hayato port to participate in a sailing race. When I say participate, I mean that several of us gaijin were generously invited to sit on this Japanese man's (a different one than that who fed us, but one no less random) sailboat. It was very sunny, but it was also very cold. I wore long johns and three shirts and a scarf and a hat and a coat and was still cold, although we were on the water so I'm sure that has some part to play. Our boat was winning after the first lap, but then the sail ripped and we ended up coming a very cold fourth. Then we ate lunch, and were cold, then had a raffle, where I won a roll of paper towels. Then I came home, where I sat in my bed with the heat cranked up and was still cold.

And now my fingers are about to fall off, so goodnight and enjoy the central heating/insulation you lucky North Americans (and condolences to those that are suffering the cold as well, and apologies for being such a baby about it).